I was very glad to have had the opportunity to finally
read this poetics classic (many thanks, Andrew!) and
found much to praise and value in it, especially
harking as it does from 1979 when I was writing
intensely myself.
I particularly appreciated Levertov's feeling for the
poem's _melos_ and its scorability. BUT, while she
rightly contrasts metrics with rhythm, updating the
traditional poem with what she nicely calls the
"exploratory" one of the last half-century, she never
mentions _pace_ or the _experimental_, both of which
have always been important, including the time in
which she wrote her essay. I missed pace as a factor
partly because of our own discussion of the difference
between lineation's effect (or expression) when one is
reading aloud vs. silently. I think we tend to slow
down and savor the lines of a poem when we read it to
ourselves and don't feel the sometimes jerky pause of
a line break read aloud. On the other hand, some poets
tend to rush over their line breaks when giving a
reading, an effect of nervousness, maybe, or simple
self-consciousness. (Or maybe just to keep the
listener guessing....)
I was impressed by Levertov's emphasis on what she
calls "fidelity to experience" as well, but again
there was something missing for me, which I'll call
"fidelity to language." She ignores the parts of
speech in her own examples of lineation--and they do
make a real difference. The couplet she rather harshly
criticizes: "As children in their night / gowns go
upstairs," perhaps fails because the noun status of
"nightgowns" goes unacknowledged. I have a similarly
line-broken couplet: "... while overhead the night /
gowns for cover (her face)," which maybe doesn't fail
because "gowns" here is a verb. (Maybe it fails
anyway--what do I know?!)
One final reaction I had was irritation at her
condescending tone toward "the student poet," whose
lessons learned from Levertov's hard-and-fast rules
could well have given rise to the dreaded "workshop
poem" in her own classes. Certainly, her more rigid
stands on lineation and other techniques would not
have been likely to encourage her students to find
their own way--and their own (lineated) voice.
Candice
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